A deeply flawed combat-based action game that offers a mere fraction of the depth and the challenge of the original... It's a shock to see the mighty Capcom let its standards slip in such a dramatic fashion.

Were it not for the cretinous handling that leaves you bouncing all over the track, and dumb AI that usually lets you off the hook anyway, we might have really liked XGRA. As it stands, though, we blitzed through the game in a few hours, and frankly have no compulsion to go back to it.

In short, there's no real feeling of accomplishment when you level up, which means there's no real incentive to do anything other than belt through levels in a bid to get them over with quickly and move on.

But the bigger problem seems to be that developer Bluepoint Games has gone after two audiences at once, and it hasn't really done enough for either.

If however, you're after a management game that's highly accessible, requires only a modicum of tactical tinkering, allows you to buy the players that you really want and enables you to enjoy instant success and thrilling match highlights, then you should certainly consider opting for CM2008.

The physics engine, as always, is the main attraction - it's just a shame that Milestone didn't apply a little more drive and ambition.

Ultimately you'll have to win a difficult argument with yourself to justify the purchase. Good luck.

If you have zero tolerance for stuttering frame rates and occasional fumbled controls then don't go near Advent Rising. It's a good science-fiction action game that suffers from technical problems.

The worst accusation I can hurl at With Fire & Sword is also the kindest compliment I can pay it. Despite the new setting, infernal weaponry and bespoke story quests, most of the time the game plays just like Warband or the original Mount & Blade.

Apart from that grumble [about the visuals], Schizoid is a welcome change of pace from the usual top-down shooter - not least because it's not a shooter, and instead turns co-op play from a fun optional extra into the core of the game.

Most damningly, there's just no charm to the game. You go into it expecting whimsy, laughs and character (as you did in the otherwise dire Sheep, actually), but you leave having raised a half-smile at the way pits spew out lamb-chops, and a feeling of nausea whenever you hear jaunty music.

The plot pulls off a potentially murky blend of regime change and climate-conspiracy because it's obvious that nobody expects anybody to think too seriously about these things, and the game beneath the plot throws the same objectives at you over and over again because it knows that the tools you're given are fun enough to ensure that you can do things a little differently each time. [Eurogamer Recommended]

If Ark and Rust are the flaccid alpha males of survival gaming, Conan is the cocksure challenger angling for an advantage. [Recommended]

It’s silly, strange and possibly psychotic, but it’s our silly, strange and possibly psychotic. You’ll criticise it, maybe even question its validity as a complete game, but you damned well won’t put it down before you’ve finished it. It’s marvellous.

Golden Axe, then. Big, brutish, three-button sprite-based fantasy brawler with bags of nostalgic moments and inexplicable co-op charm: Yours to buy for the 39th time for just 400 points.

As it is, for all the added beauty and inherited class, I don't think there's enough freshness or sophistication here for that to happen.

Those with less animated imaginations, less patience, and lower tolerances of fusty graphics and long turn resolution times should probably stick with Civ and Total War.

It's not all that good, and it's got some horrible flaws, but at the same time, at least for a while, it's a laugh.

There's just not enough imagination, invention, and engagement with the source material to entice me back. If you think the game plot sounds interesting then you're really far better off reading the book or getting hold of the superb 1945 movie.

A formulaic, by the numbers FPS with zero innovation, demented AI and a crushing lack of inspiration.

There's a lot of game in Crash Tag Team Racing, but there isn't a lot of good game. And since there isn't really a lot of kart-racing game either, on a system that seems to have more pure racing games than any other in recent memory, it's hard to think of a good reason to tag it any other way.

Jewel Quest is about planning ahead rather than reacting; the pace is deliberate rather than manic. It's Chess next to Zoo Keeper's Operation.

Overall, it's a solid and unique JRPG which, thanks to some brave and interesting design decisions is worthy of attention, even if it will do nothing to convince genre detractors of that fact.

As long as you're not expecting a serious Soul Calibur-esque beat 'em up, then there's so much to admire about KFC; it's huge fun from the word go, has an absolute shedload of unlockables and has a style all of its own.

There's a faint whiff of missed opportunity about Enter The Dominatrix, then, but four or five really good laughs are enough to warrant a cautious thumbs-up. Volition's made a half-decent fist of reheating its own leftovers, and with the injection of fresh ingredients, the next episode - brilliantly titled How The Saints Saved Christmas - promises to be even more of a giggle.

Mechanically, Life Eater uses a diary-based puzzle system in some really interesting ways, but it struggles to say anything meaningful about the shock-factor setting it's gone for.

In short, Shrek SuperSlam is the kind of game that kids are likely to spend a happy afternoon with, after which it will end up shoved at the back of the cupboard.

A sci-fi odyssey of great vision and promise that proves to be its own worst enemy.